‘I know the difference this would have made’ – Warrington MP wins fight for specialist rape courts

WARRINGTON North MP Charlotte Nichols has helped secure a major overhaul of the way rape and serious sexual offence cases are dealt with in courts across England and Wales – including the rollout of specialist courtrooms in every Crown Court.

The Government has announced that every Crown Court will have at least one courtroom specially equipped to deal with rape and serious sexual offences within the next two years.
The move follows a high-profile campaign by Nichols, who made the deeply personal decision to waive her anonymity as a survivor of sexual violence and speak publicly about her own experience of the justice system.
Her intervention came after she revealed that she had waited 1,088 days for her own case to reach trial.

Now she says her decision to speak out has resulted in “substantive meaningful change” for victims and survivors across the country.
The new specialist courtrooms will include private entrances and waiting areas for victims, facilities for pre-recording evidence and the ability for victims to observe sentencing remotely.
Crucially, rape and serious sexual offence trials will also be given fixed dates, rather than being placed on floating court lists where hearings can be moved at short notice.
The Government says the changes are designed to tackle lengthy delays and reduce the number of victims who withdraw from cases before they reach trial.
Official figures show that in 2025 rape cases took an average of 424 days to complete once they reached the Crown Court.
For victims already dealing with the trauma of sexual violence, the prospect of waiting well over a year – and in some cases considerably longer – for justice has been widely criticised.

Nichols said the announcement was particularly significant because of her own experience.
“I can’t tell you how much it means to me that substantive meaningful change has come from waiving my anonymity to speak about my own experiences six months ago,” she said.
She paid tribute to the Prime Minister and Lord Chancellor for taking forward measures she had “lobbied hard for”.
“I know the difference that these changes would have made for me and so many of the survivors of sexual violence I have worked with in recent years,” she added.
“I would like to thank those people for their bravery and courage in speaking out, you are the reason that justice will finally be delivered.”
The Government says the changes represent a fundamental shift towards putting victims at the centre of the criminal justice system.
All court staff will receive trauma-informed training, while a pilot scheme will give victims of sexual offences a single point of contact throughout the court process.
A new Rape Justice Taskforce will also bring together senior figures from across the criminal justice system to tackle postponed trials and challenge myths and stereotypes which can contribute to victims withdrawing from cases.

Prime Minister Andy Burnham said rape victims had been “let down” by the justice system for too long.
“Prosecution rates for rape remain shamefully low, with many victims waiting years for justice,” he said.
“This is not good enough. That’s why we are making major changes to rebalance the scales of justice and put victims first.”
Lord Chancellor Alex Norris said victims had too often been treated as “cases to process and not as people to support”.
The Government’s announcement has been welcomed by campaigners, who have long called for courts to be designed around the needs of rape and sexual offence survivors.

For Nichols, however, the announcement carries a much more personal significance. Her decision to publicly disclose her own experience earlier this year was a major moment in the national debate over the future of the criminal justice system.
She has argued that victims should not be expected to endure years of uncertainty while cases make their way through an already heavily congested Crown Court system.
The Government’s announcement now means the changes she campaigned for will be introduced across the country.
And for victims facing the prospect of giving evidence against an alleged attacker, the promise is that the experience of going to court should no longer add unnecessarily to their trauma.
But the challenge now will be turning the announcement into reality – and ensuring that specialist courtrooms actually deliver faster justice for victims who have already waited far too long.